Tanya glanced warily around the world of white mist she'd found herself in.
Clearly the Royal Fire Academy's curriculum was in sore need of updating. She'd been taught that The Avatar was the only being in the world that could bend all four elements, and that they possessed a powerful connection to the spirits. What they'd apparently failed to mention was that they could trap people in some kind of alternate mist dimension.
If she'd known that was a trick they had up their sleeve she'd have never engaged him in a direct confrontation.
More worrying was the fact that there was no visible exit in sight. A few strands of worry began to worm uncomfortably inside of her, but through force of will she bottled them up.
Now was not the time for panic. If there was an entrance then there must also be an exit somewhere, she just had to find it.
"And if there is no escape, what will you do? Will you pray for salvation?"
Tanya gritted her teeth by reflex. It had been a lifetime since she'd last heard it, but she'd recognise that smarmy-ass disembodied voice anywhere. Her nemesis finally revealed himself. "Being X." She stated dispassionately.
"I wondered when you'd come crawling out of the woodwork."
Though she couldn't physically see him, Tanya just knew the Being X had some condescending glare on whatever his equivalent for a face was. "Prideful as ever I see."
"So what's you plan this time around, hmm? What scheme has the all-so-mighty-one concocted to make this blasphemous wretch see the light?" Tanya asked sarcastically.
"Send her off to fight in a war again? Top marks for creativity there, especially after it worked out so well last time."
She'd been expecting some sort of arrogant retort from Being X, but to Tanya's surprise when his voice spoke again it was laced with amusement.
"Ah, but this is not quite the same as last time. You are to be congratulated Tanya, for I have learned something from you. There are not many across all planes of existence who can claim to have taught a lesson to a god."
"Oh really?" This, Tanya decided, did not sound good. "And what exactly did I teach you?"
"I believed that, when faced with the horrors of their own self-made wars, all mortals would fall back to praying to the divine for salvation.
And I was half-correct, for the vast majority do. But it would seem that there is one soul in every million that is so wretched, so debased, that they actually thrive in such horror.
They soak up blood to sate their hunger for violence like a flower soaks up water, and grow amongst battlefields littered with the bodies of their fallen comrades and victims alike. You, heathen, are one such flower of war."
Her? Thrive in war? Ha! This was further proof that Being X was no true god, for if he really was all-knowing he'd have surely known that Tanya despised war.
All it was good for was sending young men and women blessed with intelligent minds and the potential to become something productive for society to early graves.
"If that's true, then what is the point in sending me to yet another battlefield?" Tanya asked. "What's so different about this one?"
"It was something that occured to me as I heard the prayers of the soldiers who fought against you.
Do you know how many begged me for salvation when they heard you had arrived at the battlefield? How many implored me to enact vengeance upon you as they watched you shooting down their friends one by one?
How many prayed for deliverance before a single shot from you obliterated their city? Though many soldiers were able to put aside their fear of death when they joined the war, it came crashing back into them whenever they saw you.
It made me realise something about human nature. You humans are such simple, narrow minded creatures that you struggle to grasp the full gravity of a situation you are faced with until it is made easier to identify: until it wears a face and a name.
For those soldiers you became the very face of war, of death itself, and as such became a conduit through which they could understand the weight and fear of those concepts. You became an Avatar of war."
Oh no. A sinking feeling welled up in Tanya's stomach as she started to realise where this was heading. "Don't tell me…"
"Yes." Being X replied smugly. "The only way one such as you can comprehend the wrath of a god is for it to be channelled into a mortal coil.
In your previous life the one who brought you closest to despair was Mary, yet she was merely a mortal granted a fraction of a god's power to play with, an ill-fitting vessel.
For you to finally grasp the wrath of a god, you must face a god incarnate.
Thus I devised a new life for you, a new destiny, all to set you up to face a real god in mortal flesh. The Avatar."
For a moment Tanya was silent. Then, with a loud snort, she burst out into laughter.
"That's your plan?" She gasped out between breaths. "You think a little bald child is going to put the fear of god into me? Have you seen that brat? Ha! What's he gonna do, huff and puff and blow my house down?"
Yet when Being X too started laughing, Tanya found her humour quickly died up. "Your pride will be your undoing, heathen." His voice echoed, as all around her the mist started to fade.
"You have yet to see what The Avatar is capable of. But you're about too."
...
In the span of a mere moment the white fog faded, and Tanya found herself standing back in the middle of the shrine as if she'd never left at all.
So after all this time waiting, Being X finally revealed that his master plan was to intimidate her by pitting her in a war against a pacifist monk child? How ridiculous. He'd even put her on the winning side at that. How could she possibly lose?
"Sorry about that." She began casually, feeling a spike in confidence as she turned back to the cowering Avatar, resummoning the flaming dagger in her hand. "Now, where were we-..."
She abruptly froze as she finally noticed the one difference in the room.
The Avatar.
Where before a frightened child had lay, now stood a tall man in regal red robes. Long white hair seemed to sway as if blown by some unfelt wind, and an ethereal blue glow radiated from him like a holy light.
His eyes shone a similar blue colour with such brightness that they obscured his pupils, and though it was impossible to tell for certain, Tanya was sure that his eyes were fixed disapprovingly on hers. It was impossible not to recognise him; not with a statue of his very image looming right behind him.
"A- Avatar Roku?!"
Was this what The Avatar had hoped to learn by coming here?! It made sense. Why bother mastering all four elements himself when he could simply learn to transform into his older, stronger past incarnation in an instant! A fully fledged Avatar like Roku would be able to match even The Firelord!
A feeling of dread washed over Tanya, causing her to instinctively step backwards. She could feel The Avatar's power crackling in the air like electricity, and every single one of the instincts she'd developed to keep herself alive in the battlefield screamed at her to run for her life, for the enemy before her was someone she stood absolutely no chance of defeating.
So shocked was she by this turn of events that she hadn't even noticed the doors opening behind her until Zhao's voice echoed out from behind her.
"Fire!"
Only her instincts reacting to the sound of fire being conjured behind her saved her life, as she ducked down just in time to avoid the multiple streams of fire that flew over her head towards Roku. But Roku simply stretched out his hands, wresting control of the vast quantity of flames away from their creators and redirecting them to swirl around him in a burning circle.
Then he thrust out his hands again, and Tanya had the foresight to create a shield of flames in front of herself a second before a wave of fire unlike any she'd ever felt crashed over her.
The force behind it sent her flying backwards out of the room and into a pillar, just as it knocked Zhao and his men to their feet and melted the chains around Zuko and The Avatar's friends.
"Avatar Roku is going to destroy the temple! We have to get out of here!" One of the sages shouted as the other turned to flee from Roku's wrath.
A second later his warning proved true, as Roku punched the ground with enough force to send a shockwave rippling through the island. At his call the ground began to shake, and bubbling pools of lava began to hiss and crackle as they erupted through the cracks.
Tanya was busy blinking away the spots swimming in her eyes when a firm hand grasped her by the forearm.
"We have to go! Now!" Zhao growled, not giving her a chance to reply as he threw her over his shoulder and began to run, leading the way for his men as they fled from the rapidly collapsing temple.
As humiliating as it was to have to be carried like a child, Tanya had to admit that just guarding against Roku's attack had left her so weak she wasn't sure her legs would be steady enough to carry her.
She hadn't seen that much destructive power from a single person since Mary, and back then she'd never been crazy enough to take one of her attacks head-on.
However while Mary had been a berserker, throwing her power around madly in a wild rampage, Roku had wielded his strength as if it were an extension of himself. He had absolute control of his power, and was infinitely more dangerous because of it.
And this was the entity that Being X had manipulated her into fighting against.
She was totally screwed!
...
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